M&A and investments in the logistics sector in Asia, and particularly in ASEAN, have steadily been on the rise with valuations which are often at a premium to prevailing market multiples. Consolidation is definitely the buzzword in the global logistics industry.

Stock markets often belie the facts about the true picture of the underlying economy – while Developed Market (DM) stock markets have outperformed their Emerging Market (EM) counterparts every year since 2011 (except YTD 2015), the underlying economies have followed different trajectories.

Our M&A Advisory team followed up on the optimism on Vietnam shared in the June 2015 newsletter by spending a week in Ho Chi Minh City last month speaking to various local stakeholders to corroborate our thesis. We found the sentiment in Vietnam upbeat as after approx. 3-4 years of slow growth and watching its neighbours in ASEAN garnering investor attention, the country finally finds itself back under the spotlight.

Technology is emerging as the dominant investment sector across ASEAN with 56% share in 2014. Consumer, Non-cyclical deals (FMCG, F&B, Pharma, Healthcare, Education) investments continue to account for a quarter of the deal flow.

Hailed as the next "Asian Dragon", Vietnam has accounted for only ~10% of the deal volume in the ASEAN region in the last 5 years (excluding real estate) of which approx. a third was focused on the Consumer products industry.

In 2013, it was reported that companies with top-quartile representation of women on boards had 47% higher return on equity and 55% higher earnings before interest and tax on average, than those without any woman on their boards, across various industries.